Sunday, August 19, 2012

Singer Rihanna is offering up details about the 2009 incident in which Chris Brown attacked her on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast this weekend, a tearful Rihanna said: "Everything I knew switched in a night, and I couldn't control that."

In 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. The attack -- in which police said Brown bit, punched and choked his then-girlfriend -- erupted as the couple sat in a car inÂ the Hancock Park neighborhood after a pre-Grammy Awards party.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Brown was placed on five years' probation, required to attend a yearlong domestic violence prevention class and complete six months of what the judge termed "community labor" -- a more restrictive form of community service in which he was required to perform such tasks as picking up trash or removing graffiti.

In the interview, Rihanna said she was angry at Brown but also felt protective of him.

"Nobody's going to say he needs help. Everybody's going to say he's a monster, without looking at the source," she told Winfrey.Â "I was more concerned about him."